Friendship’s project namely ‘Strengthening Food Security, Nutrition, and Capacity of the Flood-Impacted Communities of Northern Bangladesh’ has been alleviating the sufferings and sorrows of hard to reach char people living on both sides of the Brahmaputra river of seven upazilas of Kurigram and Gaibandha districts since January, 2023.

Friendship, an international social purpose organization, founded by renowned social entrepreneur Runa Khan is implementing the project at five Razibpur, Rowmari, Ulipur, Chilmari and Sadarupazilas under Kurigram district and Fulchhari and Sadarupazilas of Gaibandha district under Inclusive Citizenship Sector of the organization with the financial support of Friendship Luxembourg and Luxembourg Aid & Development.

The objective of the project is to provide support to the marginalized, backward and underprivileged people living at hard to reach chars located at disaster prone areas of the districts aimed at mitigating their sufferings during the emergencies and its post period.

This project draws inspiration from Marc Elvinger, Chair of Friendship Luxembourg and co-chair of Friendship International. This inspiration came from the “Food Bank and MoothMooth” initiative, which aims to address marginalised people’s critical food and nutrition needs during the monsoon season and post-flood periods.

According to Elisabeth Voyeux, Humanitarian Aid, Friendship Luxembourg due to geographical location the char surrounded upazilas of the districts experience flood every year. During the flood the people of the upazilas are marooned as their homesteads are surrounded by flood water,

Due to flood the flood victims suffer a lot,  in a word, their sorrows know no bound, they also face hardship and food crisis that causes food insecurity and poverty like situation in the flood affected areas. For not consuming required food, the flood victims are  also victimized to malnutritional problem Taking the sorrows, hardship and sufferings, food insecurity and mal nutritional problem in view, the organization stood beside them during the emergency caused by flood and distributed food items to flood hit people of the upazilas under the project to mitigate their sufferings, hardship side by side with addressing food insecurity and mal nutrition, Elisabeth Voyeux continued to say.

Friendship provides not only essential materials, such as food packages and seeds, but also fosters a sense of responsibility by forming community groups and establishing community seed banks. Additionally, the project includes capacity-building efforts designed to create more resilient and self-reliant communities, ultimately reducing their dependence on external support, Elisabeth Voyeux concluded.

Recently, the upazilas of the districts experienced flood creating untold sufferings to the people of the upazilas. The flood caused due to hilly waters from the up streams of India and incessant rain and the people faced sufferings and hardship. In order to mitigate their sufferings and hardship, the organization distributed packages of relief materials to 9000 flood victims of the upazila under the project. Each package contains like rice, lentils, soya bean oil, and salt, said regional manager NazmulHosain.

These relief materials help the flood victims pass their days and nights smoothly during the emergency, said Saiduzzaman, chairman of Mollarchar union parishad of Sadarupazila.

As per the guidelines of the founder of the organization Runa Khan, the staff of the project are working sincerely and transparently in project command areas to make the project effective and successful, said deputy director at Inclusive Citizenship Sector of Friendship Ahmed Toufiqur Rahman.

Ayesha Taashin Khan, senior director at Inclusive Citizenship Sector, said as the organization believes in changing the socio-economic condition of hard to reach char people through proving them various support including food, the project had been introduced for the char people of seven upazilas of the districts.

She also sought whole–hearted cooperation of all concerned to attain the cherished goals of the project and make the project a grand success at project command areas as well because depending the success of the project, they would inspire to introduce same type of project in other working areas of the country in future.

The elite of the districts highly appreciated the project and its overall activities for the backward char people for mitigating their sufferings during the emergencies.

They also thanked the Friendship for faster development of hard to reach char people of the districts through implementing different projects.

Regional manager Nazmul Hossain told the correspondent the project was launched in January, 2023 and it would continue till December, 2024.